Kurt Ballou, you rat bastid! After telling us he was about to begin working on a new Old Man Gloom record and getting us into a tizzy, Ballou has gone and taken it all back a few days later, claiming it was a “belated little April Fools joke.” From Kurt’s Facebook via Metal Injection:

whoops. nevermind about Old Man Gloom. they forgot to write songs, so they’ve cancelled

And then a follow-up reply to stangry FP commenters:

hey, i want an new OMG too. i think i’m just going to write it and record it myself and see if i can pass it off as them. i have played drums, guitar, and sang on their records before, so it’s ok, right? it will be called “easter.”

Oh well. At least we can still pine for that Scissorfight reunion.

-VN

In 2001 I went to the now-defunct NYC venue Brownie’s to catch Cave In, who I’d recently discovered, and ended up catching Old Man Gloom and Scissorfight in the process. The way I viewed heavy music was forever altered, the show a railroad switch that sent my descent into the gnarlier side of metal over the edge.

All three bands took lengthy hiatuses shortly after peaking mid-decade. Cave In, as we know, got back together in 2009 to record Planets of Old and have a new album White Silence due on May 24th. Old Man Gloom — whose members include Aaron Turner of Isis, Nate Newton of Converge, Caleb Scofield of Cave In and Jay Randall of Agoraphobic Nosebleed, among others — are jumping on the reunion bandwagon too (did they ever officially break up? whatever); according to Gun Shy Assassin, producer (and Converge guitarist) Kurt Ballou posted a Facebook message that his next project is a new Old Man Gloom record. Good news indeed.

So where are Scissorfight in all of this? Word on the street is that frontman Ironlung is totally over it. We beg him with all our granite hearts to reconsider. Axl and I jammed Potential New Agent for Unconventional Warfare no less than 30 times (seriously) whilst driving around in L.A. a few weeks back, in part because it was the only CD we had and in part because sick fucking riffs dude! C’mon, Scissorfight… do it, do it, do it!

-VN

Please get back together, record a new album and bring your granite state destroying asses down to NYC for a show.

Sincerely,
Vince Neilstein